The Bible Companion Book 5 Job Tour & Giveaway
About the Book
Book: The Bible Companion Book 5 Job
Author: Karen Westbrook Moderow
Genre: Bible Study/ Devotional
Release Date: August 26, 2024
Does God care when you suffer?
The Bible Companion Book 5 helps you face hard questions about pain and evil from a perspective of hope. A simple one-chapter-a-day format lets you engage with Scriptures without the pressure of schedules, homework, or heavy reading loads. Short daily readings and thought-provoking questions connect your story to God’s Word. For personal, group, or homeschool Bible Study.
In the Books of Wisdom (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs), God speaks to us in poetry—the language of the heart. These books reveal a God who is concerned not only about our minds and bodies, but also our emotions. Our journey begins with Job, a man who loses everything. Like us, he fears for himself and his family. What he discovers through his pain surprises him and challenges many of our assumptions about God.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
KAREN WESTBROOK MODEROW is a Bible teacher and author who brings a storyteller’s perspective to Scripture. She holds master’s degrees in theology and creative writing and loves introducing others to Jesus through the stories told in God’s Word.
More from Karen
Most of us have had a Job-like season in our lives. Mine came in 1996 when my eighteen-year-old son was in a terrible car accident that left him with a permanent traumatic brain injury. Mike was in a coma for four months. His prognosis was grim. We were told he would never walk, talk, or live independently.
Come Christmas, he was still in the hospital. I had no heart for celebration, but I wanted to buy a gift for my husband. He loves art so I stopped by a local gallery. Inside, I saw a bust of a man that I immediately recognized as Job. His face was twisted in pain. Behind the hand clutched to his chest, I saw a hole. Inside was a bleeding heart. I stepped back. Job looked just like I felt. Raw. Exposed. Bleeding. I stared at the sculpture a long time. I wanted to buy it, but couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
I walked out of the shop in tears wondering if I would ever smile again. The next months were spent in rehab with Mike. We renovated our house, brought him home, hired caregivers, and prayed that somehow God would heal Mike’s body and our broken hearts. The Lord comforted us during this time, assuring us He had a plan. He would take care of us and there would be an end to our suffering. Every day brought new challenges, but Mike began to improve. More importantly, our faith took root. The Lord brought people, resources, and hope. Against all odds, Mike learned to walk, talk, feed and dress himself. And against all odds, we found ourselves joyful as we journeyed with our son through each milestone. The story is long and complicated. One I’ve journaled in my book, Back Roads Home, but the point is, God was right. There can be joy, even in sorrow. There is hope, even in the dark. There are things in Mike’s life and ours that remain broken, but God’s presence during that difficult time saw us through. Pain was not the end of our story.
Time passed in roller-coaster fashion. As I rode the highs and lows, I often thought about the Job I saw in the art gallery and wondered how he was faring. Then one year, while looking for an anniversary gift to celebrate our anniversary, Job came to mind. Enough time had gone by that I could now embrace him as a fellow-sufferer and be glad our paths crossed. I called the artist and learned she still had the piece. (Either there isn’t much of a market for art depicting tortured souls or else he was waiting for me.) My husband smiled when I unveiled him. He hugged me and said, “We’ve been through it, haven’t we?” Yes, we have. And we had to wait until we were on the other side to appreciate him. Now when I look at him, I don’t just remember the pain; I remember the gifts of suffering—patience, perseverance, trust, love, hope, and so much more.
As I was going through the book of Job chapter by chapter for The Bible Companion, Job’s sculpture sat not five feet from me. His tortured face and silent tears reminded me that this world is full of sorrow. But the Bible—the book I ran to while in such pain—compels me to carry his story forward. Job-in-clay may be frozen in agony, but Job, the man-who-contended-with-God is not. He comes to trust his all-wise Creator and finds peace. So can we. At its core, Job is a story of hope. Hope is woven throughout the book that bears his name. As a writer, my desire is to make that thread visible, especially to those who suffer in the dark.
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this Bible Study because Job has been a favorite of mine to read about. I would never compare my problems to his, however it does seem at times that I am in a battle that never ends. I like how the author describes the book of Job as an “insight into suffering, but the book is not a defense of God.” We know that Job suffered many losses but we need to look past that and see that there is hope. As we walk through the journey with Job be aware that “truth leads to hope and resides in the person of Jesus Christ.”
Many of us wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people. God is in control and may allow things to happen to grow us, discipline us and see where our heart is at. Are we as trusting and faithful to God as we proclaim?” Sometimes we may need to just comfort one another as God sees our pain. It must have been very difficult for Job to lose everything, suffer in pain and cry out to God for help. I know I have been through many trials lately where my faith has been tested. From this I know my faith has grown and my love for God is so much deeper than it was. Like Job, I refuse to give in to the enemy.
Job comes to realize that he is not fighting against God but the enemy who wants to destroy him. That revelation is what gives me a new perspective. We need to fight against those that try to deceive us. Let our eyes be set on the truth and not stray. Job discovers that he has been questioning God. As the study closes it emphasizes that “we don’t need to know why we suffer, only that we are safe in His arms.”
I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.
Blog Stops
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, September 19
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, September 20
Texas Book-aholic, September 21
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 22
She Lives To Read, September 23
Lots of Helpers, September 24
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 25
Cover Lover Book Review, September 26
For Him and My Family, September 27
Simple Harvest Reads, September 28 (Author Interview)
Dana Barrett, September 28
Book Butterfly in Dreamland, September 29
Guild Master, September 30 (Author Interview)
Girls in White Dresses, October 1
Fiction Book Lover, October 2 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, October 2
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Karen is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://sweepwidget.com/c/92782-jy68w42k
Carol’s passion is to write exciting stories that encourage, inspire, and boost the reader’s faith, possibly because she has always felt like an outsider. She was born in North Africa to American parents and grew up in France. At age 15, her family’s abrupt move to Philadelphia resulted in a rough transition to American life.
Sometimes the love you need most looks different than you imagined.
Carrie Walker lives in Michigan with her husband and seven children. From her ten years serving as a high school youth minister, adventures around the globe, and raising a family, many stories have been knit within her heart.
That’s all I’m telling you, you’ll have to find it. But I just love that a part of their love story made it into mine.
To celebrate her tour, Carrie is giving away the grand prize of a $40 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!
Drandar is the dragon that has been prophesied. He will help the king build a strong, safe kingdom as one of his faithful knights. But Drandar doesn’t seem to fit what a knight should be or even what a real dragon should look like. He’s what Seraphina calls a “late bloomer.” Drandar is droopy, discouraged, and doubting. Will he ever become the knight he’s supposed to be?
Empowering families to disciple the next generation every day and everywhere is Terrie Hellard-Brown’s mission. Sparking Everyday Discipleship, the podcast hosted by Terrie Hellard-Brown focuses on discipleship in the 21st Century, great books, and sparking important conversations with our children. Terrie is a writer, speaker, missionary, and mom with a BA in sociology and psychology, an MA in education, and is currently working on her DMin.
To celebrate her tour, Terrie is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card, signed copy of the book and Bible study that accompanies the book, three stickers, a dragon velvet bookmark, and an armor of God necklace!!
Women who followed Yeshua the Nazarene gather the day after his crucifixion to comfort one another with personal, heart-felt stories of how the Promised One changed their lives forever.
Merikay McLeod’s stories, articles and essays have appeared in Sunday Digest, Unity Magazine, Insight, Straight and other religious publications. Her freelance work has been published in many newspapers and magazines including Good Housekeeping, MS, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her walk with Jesus, originally known as Yeshua, is best expressed by Psalm 23. She has long pondered Jesus’ respectful treatment of women despite the surrounding cultural view that women were inferior. The Day After His Crucifixion is her first fiction book.